Tasty Meats

Smoked Brisket with Luke Powell

Luke Powell

Luke Powell from LP's Quality Meats in Marrickville takes us through the process of making a smoked brisket.

At LP's the brisket is cooked in a Southern Pride convection smoker at 225f/107°c. Luke notes that in an offset smoker, most people cook around 250f/121°c but with the convection of the Southern Pride, 107°c works best. He says, anything lower and you don’t get a good bark, anything higher the flat dries out too much.

The whole cook usually takes 11-12 hours. At the 8 hour mark, Luke checks to see if the bark/crust has developed and then wraps the whole brisket in bbq/peach paper to continue to steam inside for the final hours of the cook.

Luke says that cooking brisket can be tricky - but it is worth persevering - the whole cook needs to be a mix of feeling, intuition and factual thermometer temperatures.

After the brisket comes out of the smoker, put it in an esky or thermal box to rest for at least one hour. This prevents the juice pouring out when it’s sliced and helps the whole brisket relax, making for better eating.